The Oakland Symphony's Season starts with South Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung and the program “Ravishing Rachmaninoff.” She will lead the Oakland Symphony Orchestra with guest pianist Awadagin Pratt in performances of Valerie Coleman’s Seven O’Clock Shout, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Piano Concerto in A, BWV 1055, Jessie Montgomery’s Rounds for Piano and String Orchestra, and Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances. Valerie Coleman's Seven O'Clock Shout was composed for the Philadelphia Orchestra as a tribute to the tireless workers during the Covid pandemic and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra. Jessie Montgomery's Rounds was written for new San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty member Awadagin Pratt and was inspired by T.S. Eliot's poem “Four Quartets.”
Sung has led the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin and the Bamberg Symphony, the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She has appeared as guest conductor at the Teatro Colón and the Stockholm Opera.
Program:
VALERIE COLEMAN: Seven O’clock Shout
JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH: Piano Concerto in A, BWV 1055
JESSIE MONTGOMERY: Rounds for Piano & String Orchestra
SERGEI RACHMANINOFF: Symphonic Dances
Pre-concert talk from stage by John Kendall Bailey begins at 7:05 pm